An Inexpensive DIY Pear Picker
If your pears are growing too high, consider making this inexpensive DIY pear picker–with parts from your local home improvement store!
Many years ago we bought four young fruit trees. The date of this event has completely slipped my mind since, after many years of patiently waiting, they decided never to produce fruit. We planted two apple trees, which were girdled by rabbits and two pear trees, which at least kept growing.
Pears… or not
And growing. “I thought these were supposed to be dwarf trees,” I said to my husband. But buried in the tasks of everyday life and bored watching (just) leaves grow, we eventually forgot about them. Until last summer.
Last summer the power company came through our neighborhood to do some work and severely cut back one of the trees. OMG, I thought, we are supposed to be pruning these. Armed with a pear manual, my husband headed out into the yard to do some basic work, more in the spirit of guilt than hope. We waited for them not to produce again.
But life can surprise you! It started with bountiful blossoms this spring followed by tiny young pears. Branches of baby pears! I don’t know if it was the pruning or just coincidence but… hooray!!
With much of the fruit high up on our decidedly-not-dwarf trees, however, we had a new problem–how to get it down. Our neglected trees were definitely much taller than a good backyard tree is supposed to be!
Pears–at last!
Enter the homemade pear picker! John went to the local home improvement store and came back with a device that is used to change high light bulbs.
Pear Picker, er, Light Bulb Changer
It is a kind of a “grabber” that screws onto a telescoping painter’s pole. We already had a nice long telescoping pole (from years of home painting), so it was a modest investment at around $5.00. If you have to buy a pole too, it would set you back a little more, but still not bad…
Pear Picker Assembled
Next question was… would it work?
I was skeptical but John had quickly produced a box of pears with NO ladder.
I had to give it a try. And yes, this 5’6”woman successfully retrieved pears from high branches using this device. Since a ripe pear will release readily from a tree it wasn’t even a struggle.
Pear harvest
We had one branch of less than ripe pears that didn’t want to come down. So we decided to leave them for a bit longer. A week later, they had all been “harvested” by the local wildlife. After canning two boxes of pears with such a modest cash investment, I was happy to share!
Pears in white wine, pears in red wine, pearsauce, pear-tini syrup. …
So, to any experienced fruit growers (or general life philosophers) out there… dare I hope for next year?
Hi folks.i too used this same concept during my first few harvests.then my pears got much bigger and the picker was too small.then one day found a squirl cage run around looking set of cylenderical pieces in my barn.they are about 4.5in diameter so i mounted it on pole .then took a welding rod 1/8″ and made a hook about 1/4″ across .like small candycane.then mount to side leaving 2″ of hook above cyl edge and bend it over to the inside edge.so when u support the pear turn handle and u have a grabber for stubborn fruit..
Thanks for sharing Rich. I wish I had the problem where my pears were too big. Perhaps this year I’ll work harder to thin them and see what happens!
the pears look beautiful – the skins are life a still life painting. An dwell done for waiting and improvising 🙂
I was so pleased to get those pears. Now I want to put in lots more fruit!
fantastic idea! i’m all for a quicker, cheaper, and easier way to get to pear heaven. 🙂
The picking was easy. The canning was still a bit of work 😉 But will be worth it in January!
What a wonderful idea! I love pears.
Thanks! And I agree–pears are great!
Great post!
Thanks!
I need to figure out our irrigation. Just lost another peach tree. Arrrgh!
Oh how sad. But you know I recently heard someone recommend that peach trees be considered somewhat disposable–always grow more than you want with the idea you’ll lose some. It seems like a hard stance to take though, even if realistic. I am hoping for peach trees (multiple I guess) in my future too.
Such a smart and inexpensive idea! Happy to hear that it worked so well for you guys.
The pears do help since they come off easily when ripe. But I was sure glad no one needed to go up a ladder (not that any of step ladders were even tall enough)!
Clever Inger! Oh to have such problems, lol…My guess is the pruning is definitely the answer. I really need to get some fruit trees!
Thank you so much for sharing…
Oh you should get some fruit trees Louise (just prune them from the start 😉 )! This has really motivated me to do more. Between my raspberries producing a fair amount and the pears, growing more fruit is starting to look like a reasonable goal!
I like your ingenuity! I know nothing about growing fruit trees but I’m going to guess you’ll get pears again next year. 🙂
I hope so Lynn!
What a great idea! Now I need a pear tree 😛
Cheers
Choc Chip Uru
Thanks Uru! Hmmm, how to pack a pear tree for college…